Bassoues is a typical bastide in the south of France. A bastide is a walled town. The standard lunch under the umbrellas to the right cost €11 (about $14.30); it consisted of soup, salad, appetizer, entree, dessert and a carafe of wine.

This is a bed and breakfast in Pallanne, France. Pallanne is near Marciac which is a small medieval bastide-town and commune in the Gers département in southwestern France. It is famous for its annual international jazz festival, which runs for a fortnight every summer. The town has 1,100 residents for 50 weeks of the year. Those two weeks of jazz increase it to 50,000.

In June, 1944 Oradour-Sur-Glane was ravaged by fleeing Nazis. Those scum killed nearly every man, woman and child in the town on June 10, 1944. It was horrific. The French have preserved the town as it was that fateful day. It is now a chilling memorial to the horrors of men gone mad.

Lalbenque, France is the truffle capital of the world, so they say. We stopped at the Lion D'Or for lunch where they served one of the best white pizzas I have ever tasted. It was made with creme fraiche, emmenthaler and parmigan cheeses, a few black olives and sliced (but not sauteed) onions. Wonderful.